SW Gaiden: The Battles of Nobuhiro Goto
by Put Ya Guns On
Summary: An officer in Yoshimoto Imagawa's army tells his account of the battles he's fought in. Stars an OC. Rated T for violence and mild language. Will update pretty much whenever.


Disclaimer: I do not own Samurai Warriors. Tecmo Koei does. All I own here is the eponymous protagonist of these stories.

So basically, these are a bunch of battles from the perspective of Nobuhiro Goto, an officer in the Imagawa army. Actually, he's my Custom Officer that I created in SW1, SW2: Empires, and SW3. So yeah. Enjoy!

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Okehazama, Owari Province, 1560

Here we are setting up our forces in our camp, preparing to attack this small-time lord with a small army. I believe his name was Nobunaga Oda. But that doesn't matter. Who does he think he is, attacking us, 35,000 men strong with less than 3,000 men? Though with a lord as incompetent as mine, I have some doubts.

We had a good share of victories recently, so everyone around me was celebrating, getting drunk, dancing, and other stuff. I was in an emptier part of the camp swinging my sword to get that pre-battle nervousness out of my system, my helmet on the ground next to me. I wasn't too far from lord Yoshimoto's tent. He was outside of his tent in his fancy nobleman clothes and makeup, playing kemari.

I couldn't believe this. I know that we're only fighting a small army, but why the hell is he playing kemari at a time like this? He is a very powerful lord, we've had quite a few victories because of him, and I'm actually impressed he can actually use that toy as a weapon, but kemari seems to be all he cares about. Hell, I think he cares more about kemari than actually ruling Japan. He's got all this power but is too stupid to use it for a good cause. Oh well. These 19 years I've been alive have been great because my father served him anyway, and I'm bound by honor to serve him, so I owe him one. We were lucky to have guys like Motoyasu Matsudaira* with us though. Unlike our lord, he actually cares about ruling Japan, and I can actually see him doing it.

He walked up to me. Great. He wants to play kemari with me, doesn't he.

"Oh, Nobuhiro, you look so bored," he said to me, holding his ball. "You work so hard, but you need to relax! How about a game of kemari? You know, the secret to kemari is…oh, nevermind! Shall we play?"

I bowed. "W-with all due respect, my lord, I don't think that now is the time for kemari. We're going to attack Oda soon, remember?"

"That won't be for a few hours! Come and play!"

"No thanks, my lord," I replied with a sigh.

"Fine, fine. I'll find someone else to play with." He walked away with his head down, but soon threw the ball up and kicked it into the air again, returning to that happy, childlike mood he always seemed to be in. I continued to swing my sword repeatedly.

After a bit, I sheathed my sword and put my helmet back on. I sat down with some guys to have a few bowls of rice. Now that my nervousness was gone, and my confidence was very high, we all started to joke about how small Oda's army was, and how easily we would win. After my fourth bowl, I didn't eat anymore.

It was time. As rain started to fall upon us, we all got into our formations, our lord finally dropped that damn ball and announced, "We must remind them of our superiority!" Everyone let out a resounding "YEAH!" and soon, we headed out. I lead a sizeable unit of ashigaru.

On our way to the enemy camp, my unit encountered one of theirs. They were a very small unit lead by a single officer. About five of them charged at me. The first two were pretty slow, and I managed to kill the first by drawing my sword in an iaijutsu technique, and then followed up with a downward slash to the second, killing him as well. The third actually managed to scratch my armor, but I felt almost nothing. Same couldn't be said about him, as my sword went right through his side. After pulling my sword out of him, I slashed the fourth, and finally, as the fifth came running behind me, I quickly turned around and cut him down.

While my men took care of the rest, the enemy officer rushed at me with his spear. He also managed to damage my armor, and I actually felt the impact. It caused me to hesitate my next movement, and I felt another strike to my body. Right after, I felt this pain in my left leg, and felt a sharp blade being pulled out of it. Great, now my leg's injured, and I haven't hit this guy once. Would I lose here? Would this be the end?

However, I remembered my training days living with that old man about a year ago. He taught me a technique that many powerful samurai these days utilize: Letting out your inner energy through a series of powerful strikes, only known as a "Musou", or unmatched, technique.

Yes! I remembered! We spent about a month training this! I cleared my mind to the best of my ability, allowing the energy to flow through me. The enemy officer was about to attack me again. Just before he hit me, I let out my energy. I connected one strike, and soon kept striking him repeatedly, feeling as though I was surrounded by an aura of some sort. He had no opportunity to counter me at all, my strikes practically went through his armor. After one final blow, in which all my remaining energy went, the man was down. One enemy officer defeated. Great.

Soon, I saw one very lightly-armored man running up to me. "Sir! Reports say that Oda's men are heading for our camp!" Damn. I'm already this far. But our lord's in danger. It would be careless to just ignore him. "Men," I said to my troops. "We're going back. Our lord needs us."

We came rushing back, my adrenaline rush making me forget my leg injury at random times. We returned to see a bunch of Oda's troops slaughtering ours. How could this be? So few men are slaughtering our big army! Our lord came out of his tent. "…Nobunaga?" he yelled in a somewhat cowardly tone. "Men, you must protect me!"

It's too late for that. They're already in and most of our camp is destroyed. A tall man in black, almost form-fitting armor and a black cape was sitting on a horse, which was charging at our lord. In his hand was a straight sword that seemed to emanate an evil aura. He was surrounded by a small number of troops, and among them was a short man in gold-colored armor whose face resembled that of a monkey's. Could this tall man on a horse be Nobunaga?

"Time for me to put you out of your misery!" he yelled, charging at our lord. The lord took out his kemari and sword, and started to engage in combat with Nobunaga. The short monkey man started to come at me with his spear, and I was desperately deflecting all of his blows, until one eventually hit my forehead. Luckily, my helmet protected it, but that didn't mean I couldn't feel any impact. I started to feel as though I was losing consciousness. He hit me again, this time, in the chest...repeatedly...I was being knocked back. Here I am losing the strength in my legs, and being beaten by a little monkey man.

Finally, I managed to block. I was able to regain my composure and feel some energy returning. Can I manage another one? Another Musou technique?

I did the same thing. Right after blocking another attack from the monkey man, I regained my focus completely, and cleared my mind again. This time I could feel the aura, stronger than ever. "Take...this!" I struck my monkey-faced opponent repeatedly, much like I did to the officer back there, but this time, there was more power. I was desperately trying to survive, so I gave it my all in this one. The monkey man was getting knocked back! Yes! I think I've got this one!

No. I didn't. He's still standing. Tired, clearly lost a lot of stamina, yes. But still standing just fine. Some of our footsoldiers started rushing to fight him anyway, and I diverted my attention to my lord, casually slaying another of Oda's ashigaru.

There he was, outside of his tent, fighting Nobunaga. Looking like a coward, as usual. Honestly, what did my father see in this man? But I digress. I ran to him to see if I could get a shot at Nobunaga.

Yoshimoto was finally on one knee, clearly injured. Nobunaga walked towards him slowly, his sword glowing with that dark aura. Should I go and protect him? Or should I just let him die and find a more competent lord?

Too late. Nobunaga's sword slashed through Yoshimoto, finally killing him. The kemari rolled up to my feet, and I simply picked it up.

I felt almost no sorrow for Yoshimoto. His only reason for conquering Japan was to play kemari with everyone. he didn't seem to care about becoming Shogun at all. As the Oda troops cheered for the death of my lord, I simply left, holding the kemari, so that I could find a better one. It's time for me to carve my own path from here.

To be continued…

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*Motoyasu Matsudaira was Ieyasu Tokugawa's name at the time. Yep, decided to be historically accurate with this part.


End file.
